The Bell and the Blackbird

If you are not already familiar with the poetry of David Whyte, then this new anthology is a great place to start. I heard him reciting at the State of the World Forum in 1997, and have followed his work ever since. His lyrical sensibility has resonances with his late friend John O'Donohue - both are imbued with a powerful sense of nature – moorland in particular - and a few poems are dedicated to John. There is a sense of appreciating the between-ness as well as the preciousness and transience of life with its sense of adventure.

When everything we know has gone, when my heart has stopped and yours no longer calls to mine through the distance of our time together – others will live in this life and this love and this light that we have set in motion…

Here is one of my favourites - Just beyond Yourself

Just beyond yourself.

It's where you need to be.

Half a step into self-forgetting and the rest restored by what you'll meet.

There is a road always beckoning.

When you see the two sides of it closing together at the far horizon and deep in the foundations of your own heart at exactly the same time, that's how you know it's the road you have to follow.

That's how you know it's where you have to go.

That's how you know you have to go.

That's how you know.

Just beyond yourself, it's where you need to be.